National carrier South African Airways' (SAA's) failure to increase the number of pilots from previously disadvantaged communities over the past 16 years shows that the aviation industry is far from reaching its transformation deadline.

"Each time black Africans get the opportunity to be trained, they fail the course," Ngema said. "We had situations in which we would put 30 black people on the training course and all of them would fail. I don't believe black people are 'untrainable'."

"The problem is that the people that we need to train come from schools that were disadvantaged by the legacy of apartheid." Ngema said. "We cannot continue to condemn them by demanding an 'A' or 'B' in maths and science."

Ngema said he proposed lowering academic requirements to the industry and was met with "a lot of resistance".

The problems with training simians to fly figured prominently in the article.

Here is one part I could clearly recall after seven years:

Quote:

On his return flight, November 27, 2001, flight #SA220, the toilets stopped working altogether. He says the captain urged everyone to “only use the restrooms in a dire emergency and let a flight attendant know when they needed flushing.” The flight attendants had to use drinking water to flush the toilets, so there was no coffee or tea. The television screen was jumping too much to watch the videos. When Mr. Six reported this to a flight attendant, he was told “I’m sorry, but this is just economy class.”

The toilets are probably the least complicated part of a jet airliner. If they aren't maintained properly what does that say about engines, avionics, hydraulics, etc.?

Anyone flying to Africa would be well advised to book a flight only on a western carrier.